Funlad3's 45 Gallon 3' x 2' x 1' Acropora Lagoon

chousecat

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As someone who is clueless when it comes to most DIY projects, this thread was a great treat. Thanks for the descriptive progress
 
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Funlad3

Funlad3

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My biggest obstacle to getting pieces colored up so far has been that the tank refuses to keep any nutrients in the water. Since adding fish to this tank, the phosphates have actually *decreased* from .12 to .08, and the nitrates keep falling to undetectable within days of dosing them. I've been adding 5ppm of sodium nitrate per week, so I bumped that up to 10ppm to see if I can keep them from being completely exhausted. Failing that, I have more fish in QT that should help keep things detectable. Despite the fluctuating nutrients, the calcium reactor is just about dialed in.

Now that the frag tank is officially a part of the lagoon system, I'm pretty sure that I'm obligated to share pictures of the colonies that I get. I just got these in today, but once these settle in some, frags of each will make it to the display and plenty more frags will be available to trade. :)

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IMG_5539.JPG


IMG_5547.JPG
 
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Funlad3

Funlad3

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Updates, because it's been a while!

I lost a few fish in an annoying chain of events that I ultimately attribute to the boxfish. Within a few days of adding the naso in July, it mysteriously died. I didn't think anything of it, as nasos are among the most finicky tangs. Then earlier this month, I added a Yellow and Kole tang that I kept in copper in QT for over a month. The yellow was pretty much instantly out and about, but the boxfish started to hide in the rocks with the Kole tang, which died within a day or two. The following day, the boxfish died. My best guess is that the boxfish got stressed out by the new additions and released ostracitoxin. I'm not 100% convinced of this, as both tangs had spent time in the 20g quarantine tank for extended periods of time with either one or both of the boxfish I've had, but the yellow tang and my scribbled angel never skipped a beat in the lagoon. I know it wasn't disease, but I'm never going to know for certain what happened. Now I have to track down more fish to get my bioload up.

Relatedly, since the tank has been settling, I finally got to go through an algae cycle. Because I've been collecting a ridiculous amount of acros, however, the tank has refused to keep any sort of measurable nutrients. The nutrient consumption is actually so bad that when I accidentally dumped in half a container of Reef Roids one night, my phosphates didn't even hit 0.04. I've been battling a minor case of dinoflagellates, which I've been siphoning every day. I've also been dosing the equivalent of 10ppm of nitrates each week by adding KNO3 to my top of reservoir, and I finally ended a week with detectable nutrient levels, .5 nitrates and 0.02 phosphates. With so much nitrate going into the tank, the rock and sand have had a touch of cyano in addition to the dinoflagellates, but by siphoning it all into my filter socks every day for the past two weeks, the tank is finally turning a corner.

Amazingly, the corals have all been growing throughout this process (despite having very muted colors due to low nutrients), and like I mentioned, I've added a ton of new pieces. I probably have more than 50 strains of acros glued to various tiles that are now taking up my entire sandbed, plus another 15 full colonies that I have on PVC. I've only glued pieces of a few of these 60+ corals to my rocks, as I'm waiting for things to settle in and color up before I give frags a more permanent home. With my low nutrients, things are refusing to color up, so my sand bed is going to stay chaotic for the near future.

Anyways, now that the tank is slightly presentable, here are some pictures of some of the more colorful pieces:
(Photo disclaimer: this tank is so danged shallow that it's basically impossible to shoot pictures under the water surface, so all of these are shot through the water and blurrier than I like. I'm still committed to finding a resolution.)

IMG_5580.JPG


IMG_5582.JPG


IMG_5583.JPG


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My purple and orange spath has picked up another color; now the polyps are green and pink:
IMG_5594.JPG


Tyree Pink Lemonade, growing slow but showing *perfect* color:
IMG_5598.JPG


Here's one of my newer wilds that I'm waiting to color up:
IMG_5605.JPG


My Cornbred Valhalla has finally settled in after I almost burned it to death dipping it in over concentrated Bayer:
IMG_5607.JPG


A sweet chunk of Bali Shortcake (I think?) getting ready to explode:
IMG_5614.JPG
 
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teamschreiba

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Looks great! I love all the DIY, especially the arcade buttons.

I’m struggling with keeping nutrients up as well with an all dry rock tank. Definitely a lot of work to keep stable in the beginning.
 

SkiCatTX

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Updates, because it's been a while!

I lost a few fish in an annoying chain of events that I ultimately attribute to the boxfish. Within a few days of adding the naso in July, it mysteriously died. I didn't think anything of it, as nasos are among the most finicky tangs. Then earlier this month, I added a Yellow and Kole tang that I kept in copper in QT for over a month. The yellow was pretty much instantly out and about, but the boxfish started to hide in the rocks with the Kole tang, which died within a day or two. The following day, the boxfish died. My best guess is that the boxfish got stressed out by the new additions and released ostracitoxin. I'm not 100% convinced of this, as both tangs had spent time in the 20g quarantine tank for extended periods of time with either one or both of the boxfish I've had, but the yellow tang and my scribbled angel never skipped a beat in the lagoon. I know it wasn't disease, but I'm never going to know for certain what happened. Now I have to track down more fish to get my bioload up.

Relatedly, since the tank has been settling, I finally got to go through an algae cycle. Because I've been collecting a ridiculous amount of acros, however, the tank has refused to keep any sort of measurable nutrients. The nutrient consumption is actually so bad that when I accidentally dumped in half a container of Reef Roids one night, my phosphates didn't even hit 0.04. I've been battling a minor case of dinoflagellates, which I've been siphoning every day. I've also been dosing the equivalent of 10ppm of nitrates each week by adding KNO3 to my top of reservoir, and I finally ended a week with detectable nutrient levels, .5 nitrates and 0.02 phosphates. With so much nitrate going into the tank, the rock and sand have had a touch of cyano in addition to the dinoflagellates, but by siphoning it all into my filter socks every day for the past two weeks, the tank is finally turning a corner.

Amazingly, the corals have all been growing throughout this process (despite having very muted colors due to low nutrients), and like I mentioned, I've added a ton of new pieces. I probably have more than 50 strains of acros glued to various tiles that are now taking up my entire sandbed, plus another 15 full colonies that I have on PVC. I've only glued pieces of a few of these 60+ corals to my rocks, as I'm waiting for things to settle in and color up before I give frags a more permanent home. With my low nutrients, things are refusing to color up, so my sand bed is going to stay chaotic for the near future.

Anyways, now that the tank is slightly presentable, here are some pictures of some of the more colorful pieces:
(Photo disclaimer: this tank is so danged shallow that it's basically impossible to shoot pictures under the water surface, so all of these are shot through the water and blurrier than I like. I'm still committed to finding a resolution.)

IMG_5580.JPG


IMG_5582.JPG


IMG_5583.JPG


IMG_5584.JPG


My purple and orange spath has picked up another color; now the polyps are green and pink:
IMG_5594.JPG


Tyree Pink Lemonade, growing slow but showing *perfect* color:
IMG_5598.JPG


Here's one of my newer wilds that I'm waiting to color up:
IMG_5605.JPG


My Cornbred Valhalla has finally settled in after I almost burned it to death dipping it in over concentrated Bayer:
IMG_5607.JPG


A sweet chunk of Bali Shortcake (I think?) getting ready to explode:
IMG_5614.JPG
Cool build, great colors!
 

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